A Deconstruction of the Story
Dmitri Dmitritch Gurov, a married man with a daughter who is twelve years and two sons in school and lives in Yalta. Gurov has a keen interest in people who are new in the area spots a young lady Anna Sergeyevna , a young lady with an average height accompanied by a Pomeranian dog strolling on the front of the sea. The lady is a visitor in Yalta and residents only refers to her as ‘the lady with a dog’ nobody really knows her name. after a careful analysis of his approach plan to the lady, they meet at the Gardens and they are both dining when Gurov shakes his finger at the lady’s dog. Thee dog barks furiously but the lady assures Gurov that the dog dos not bite. After several meetings Gurov discovers that the lady’s name is Anna Sergeyevne. She is married to Von Diderit in Old Gontcharny. They begin to have a keen interest in each other and when Anna Sergeyevne receives information that her husband is sick and wants her, she leaves Yalta but tells Gurov that they will never meet again. Gurov remains behind but he is not peaceful because he misses her dearly. He makes arrangement and follows her to her husbands place and they reunite again in a passionate relationship.
Binary oppositions
In the story Antony Chekhov uses binary opposition tool accurately. The entire story is a relationship of abstract experience with concrete experience.
For example, an abstract element like love is related to passion as a concrete element in the story. When Anna Sergeyevne goes to visit Gurov in Yalta, she cries passionately and complains that their relationship was difficult since they could only meet in privacy away from people who new them. Chekhov writes, “She was crying from emotion, from the miserable consciousness that their life was so hard for them; they could only meet in secret, hiding themselves from people, like thieves! Was not their life shattered?”p14. This means that in Anna’s engrossment in love, she is also passionately attracted to Gurov and wishes that their relationship could exist in the knowledge of people who new them but since they were both married, this was an impossible. It is therefore true that the pair themselves is binary opposition.
The live of Gurov is also an instance of binary opposition. He seems to have a happy public life. With his family and a job as a banker, one can easily say that e has a happier family life as well as occupational life. To the reader however this is a contrary, we know that the man is having an affair with a married woman. In fact as the story ends he admits that love caught up with him in his old age when he sees grey hair when kissing Anna. P 14
Gurov’s real wife classifies herself as being intellectual and could read a lot. However Gurov knows that his wife is not intelligent but was narrow and inelegant and this made Gurov to be afraid of her. This made him to be absent from home most of the time. P4.
Anna’s life also is an example of binary opposition. The woman is married to Von Diderits but has very strong intimate feelings towards Gurov. This is a good instance of fidelity versus passion and intimacy as binary opposition.
Work cited
Anton Chekhov. (1925). the Lady with a Pet Dog, Moscow: the Gale Group Inc.
